Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2006 22:07:46 -0800
Reply-To: Jack Cook <john.cook58@VERIZON.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jack Cook <john.cook58@VERIZON.NET>
Subject: Re: The Sons of Martha
In-Reply-To: <6.2.3.4.2.20060705203650.0511aa28@pop1.attglobal.net>
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I enjoyed that! But give us some warning next time. I had to shift out of
my usual speed reading mode and read your note 2 or 3 time before it
began to sink in. But happy I did.
It seems you've been AWOL for a while, David. Missed your input.
//Jack
On 5 Jul 2006 at 20:45, David Beierl wrote:
> For mysterious reasons I am moved to submit this 1907 work of Rudyard
> Kipling. I have never read it without tears -- sometimes a drop,
> occasionally a flood. More than you wished to know, perhaps.
>
> david
>
>
> The sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited
> that good part;
> But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the
> careful soul and the troubled heart.
> And because she lost her temper once, and because she
> was rude to the Lord her Guest,
> Her Sons must wait upon Mary's Sons, world without
> end, reprieve, or rest.
> It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and
> cushion the shock.
> It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that
> the switches lock.
> It is their care that the wheels run truly; it is their care
> to embark and entrain,
> Tally, transport, and deliver duly the Sons of Mary by
> land and main.
>
> They say to mountains, "Be ye removed." They say to
> the lesser floods, "Be dry."
> Under their rods are the rocks reproved-they are not
> afraid of that which is high.
> Then do the hill-tops shake to the summit-then is the
> bed of the deep laid bare,
> That the Sons of Mary may overcome it, pleasantly
> sleeping and unaware.
> They finger death at their gloves' end where they piece
> and repiece the living wires.
> He rears against the gates they tend: they feed him hungry
> behind their fires.
> Early at dawn, ere men see clear, they stumble into
> his terrible stall,
> And hale him forth a haltered steer, and goad and turn
> him till evenfall.
> To these from birth is Belief forbidden; from these till
> death is Relief afar.
> They are concerned with matters hidden - under the
> earthline their altars are-
> The secret fountains to follow up, waters withdrawn to
> restore to the mouth,
> And gather the floods as in a cup, and pour them again
> at a city's drouth.
>
> They do not preach that their God will rouse them a
> little before the nuts work loose.
> They do not teach that His Pity allows them to drop
> their job when they dam'-well choose.
> As in the thronged and the lighted ways, so in the dark
> and the desert they stand,
> Wary and watchful all their days that their brethren's
> day may be long in the land.
>
> Raise ye the stone or cleave the wood to make a path
> more fair or flat -
> Lo, it is black already with blood some Son of Martha
> spilled for that!
> Not as a ladder from earth to Heaven, not as a witness
> to any creed,
> But simple service simply given to his own kind in their
> common need.
>
> And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessed - they
> know the Angels are on their side.
> They know in them is the Grace confessed, and for
> them are the Mercies multiplied.
> They sit at the Feet - they hear the Word - they see
> how truly the Promise runs.
> They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and - the
> Lord He lays it on Martha's Sons!
>
>
>
>
> --
> David Beierl - Providence RI USA -- http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
> '84 Westy "Dutiful Passage," '85 GL "Poor Relation"
>
>
> --
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